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Further Reading

The Court of Justice of the European Union, the bloc’s top court, has ruled that Uber is properly classified as a transportation service and as such can be regulated under member states’ local laws.

Uber had previously claimed, as it has in the United States, that as merely a "platform" or "intermediation service" that simply connects those who want rides with those who seek them, it is not bound by historic taxi and other transportation rules. Stateside, the company initially ran roughshod through local regulations and, in many cases, got state and local governments to create an entirely new class of regulations for "transportation network companies" or TNCs.

The CJEU didn’t buy it.

"That intermediation service must thus be regarded as forming an integral part of an overall service whose main component is a transport service and, accordingly, must be classified not as ‘an information society service,’" the court found in Wednesday's ruling, "but as ‘a service in the field of transport’ within the meaning of Article 2(2)(d) of Directive 2006/123."

The CJEU largely followed the May 2017 recommendation of the court's advocate general.

Further Reading

The case originated from Spain, where a Barcelona taxi association sued Uber over allegations of unfair competition and cannot be appealed further.

"This ruling will not change things in most EU countries where we already operate under transportation law," an Uber spokeswoman told reporters in a statement. "As our new CEO has said, it is appropriate to regulate services such as Uber and so we will continue the dialogue with cities across Europe."

IRU, a Geneva-based worldwide organization that represents trucking and taxi firms, applauded the ruling. "Today’s ECJ decision creates a clear framework and direction for legislators, enforcers and the wider taxi and for-hire industry on the way ahead," Oleg Kamberski, the agency’s head, said in a statement.

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Cyrus Farivar
Cyrus is a Senior Tech Policy Reporter at Ars Technica, and is also a radio producer and author. His latest book, Habeas Data, about the legal cases over the last 50 years that have had an outsized impact on surveillance and privacy law in America, is out now from Melville House. He is based in Oakland, California. Emailcyrus.farivar@arstechnica.com//Twitter@cfarivar